Iced Gingerbread Cookie Keepsake Ornaments

Each year my kids get to choose a new ornament for the tree. Unfortunately they have a mama who is pretty picky about what goes onto the tree and therefore are limited to a color scheme. They are open to choose whatever they want, I don't limit them that, I just ask that it remains a neutral color so our family tree will be themed from top to bottom. (I hope you aren't super annoyed with me yet!) For years I felt bad about not allowing them to get the character ornaments or ornaments of trucks and butterflies, but one of my favorite things about our tree is I can vividly remember my kids taking their time and picking out each ornament. They didn't go for the first bright colored, character or sports themed ornament they found. They spent time really picking out a special piece for the tree.

I'm super nostalgic when it comes to Christmas so in addition to their store bought ornaments I also make keepsake ornaments with the kids each year. These y'all, are seriously precious to take out each year and see your kids own special creations.

When I was a little girl my kindergarten class made keepsake gingerbread ornaments. Mine was a gingerbread girl. Her eyes and mouth were made of cloves and she had pretty white rick rack along the bottom of her dress and arms and a tiny red ribbon tied around her neck. Each year my mama would unwrap this special ornament and it would smell exactly like gingerbread cookies. Year after year it never lost its beautiful scent.

So now, each year I make these ornaments with my kids! We've made gingerbread men, used Christmas themed cookie cutters, I have traced their hands, and I have even made thumb print cookies. You can get really creative with them and allow your kids to be a part of the craft while still keeping with whatever your tree theme is. It really is the absolute perfect way for the picky Christmas tree decorator to allow homemade ornaments on her tree!

This year I decided to find a way to make Iced gingerbread keepsake cookies. The icing was new to me and I had to think WAY outside of the box to get that traditional icing look! I think I found it though and the iced cookies turned out so well.

I decided to go with wall spackle because of the consistency and I knew it would dry hard to pretty much any hard surface. When testing the white spackle on a gingerbread ornament, I realized the spackle alone didn't adhere well to the cookie. It separated itself and easily peeled off. When the paint was added though, it dried perfectly. In saying that, if you are wanting white "icing" make sure you don't just use the spackle, definitely add white paint as well. The paint does change the consistency of the spackle making it much thinner, however this does allow the "icing' to pipe much easier onto the gingerbread and makes it easier to manipulate.

The older kids (11 and 12) obviously have more steady hands and were able to try creating more intricate decorations on their cookies (shown above.) Hollis (3) on the other hand needed a little - okay, a lot of help! I put his gingerbread cookie ornament in the bottom of one of the paper bowls and gave him the ziplock bag of "icing" and pretty much let him just squeeze the bag while I moved it back and forth over the ornament. Once her was finished, I made sure to clean any of the "icing" out the ribbon hole. This was his creation below, which is just perfect!!

I think it is important to note this isn't a quick project. The cookies take 2 hours to make, then you decorate them, then you have to allow the icing to dry overnight. Plan this as a weekend project or during the few days leading up to Christmas morning.

GINGERBREAD DOUGH (NON-EDIBLE)

2 cups applesauce

8 oz cinnamon

4 tbsp Modge Podge or white craft glue

flour (for rolling out)

parchment paper (for baking)

straw (for making hole)

ribbon (to hang ornaments)

*you can also add allspice, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg to enhance the beautiful scent

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Mix applesauce, cinnamon (and other spices) and glue together using a wooden spoon. The finished product may look a little wet, but will resemble a normal cookie dough.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sprinkle flour on counter top surface and roll out a handful of the dough. I have found its easier to work in batches with this dough than to try and roll it out all as once. Roll out dough about 1/2" thick and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. If you have left over flour on the cut out cookie, you can take a bit of water and brush over the cookie, I however thought the flour resembled snow and made the "cookies" look more like real cookies! Place shapes on lined baking sheet, use straw to cut out a small hole in the ornament, and put in preheated oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour of baking, flip the cookies and bake another hour. Take cookie out of the oven and cool completely before decorating.

ICING (NON-EDIBLE)

wall spackle (find one with a short drying time of 24 hours)

acrylic paint (colors of your choice, definitely get white paint)

paper bowls (for mixing paint and spackle)

plastic spoons (for mixing paint and spackle)

ziplock bags (to be used as piping bags)

toothpicks (to help with decorating)

Spoon out a good amount of spackle into a paper bowl. Add paint until you have achieved the color you are looking for. I eyeballed it and added more as needed. Once you have achieve the color, spoon this mixture into a ziplock back, close bag and move onto the next color. Do this until all your chosen colors are in separate zip lock bags.

When you are ready to decorate, snip a VERY small bit of one of the corners of the ziplock bag and use that to decorate your gingerbread cookies. You can place the ziplock bags when not in use in a paper bowl to keep the mixture from spilling out on the counter tops.

Once you have iced your cookies, leave them out overnight to dry. String ribbon through hole and put onto Christmas tree. Oh and don't forget to write their name and the year on the back!

ICING TIP

*outline the cookie first and then fill in once lined. You can use a tooth pick to help move the icing mixture around and fill in gaps.

I would love to know if you plan on making these with your kids and how they turn out!! They add the perfect homemade touch to any Christmas tree and they are so beautiful I'll be decorating with these year after year!